Atlanti (ISSN 1318-0134 , E-ISSN 2670-451X)) is an international review for modern archival theory and practice. It is published by the International Institute for Archival Science of Trieste and Maribor and co-published by Alma Mater Europaea. It has an international editorial board and publishes original research, scientific and professional articles and discussions of archival issues and records management. Atlanti have been published since 1991. It is published once a year in two volumes. The issues are thematic and devoted to the problems in the field of archival science.
The International Institute for Archival Science – IIAS
The article describes the current state and the main directions of Kazakhstan’s archives development in “digital state” formation conditions. The problems of ensuring the longterm storage of electronic documents and databases with the subsequent possibility of their management, including through the use of BigData technologies, are considered. A description of a project being implemented in Kazakhstan to create a “Unified Electronic Archive of Documents” is given.
PROJECT E-ARH.SI 2016 - 2020: SOLUTIONS FOR VULNERABLE GROUPS
The inspiration and motivation for the development of e-ARH.si in the period 2016 - 2020 is the vision that all interested users will be able to access from any place the best electronic solutions in order to preserve and use electronic archival records. Access to electronic archival records is also one of the priority strategic goals of the development of e-ARH.si for the period 2016 - 2020 and at the same time represents the implementation of various regulations that also require Slovenian public archives to provide access to their services to vulnerable groups (Hajtnik, 2018 , pp.91-101). The author presents some solutions for the realization of this vision, which will enable access to electronic archival records for vulnerable groups (persons with disabilities) and particularly emphasizes the adaptations of film archives and documents.
NEW CHALLENGES FOR THE PRINCIPLE OF PROVENANCE IN THE DIGITAL WORLD?
Provenance has been accepted and adopted by most archives, as it allows research and interpre-tation of data in their genuine context of origin. However new types of interconnected data ma-nagement systems used in science, administration and by government agencies can transcend the principle of provenance both vertically and horizontally. Digital data pertaining to certain issues may be generated by several agencies and/or on different levels while being combined in a certain data management system. Archival science has to repsond to this new challenge.
SOCIO-CULTURAL MISSION OF THE ARCHIVES AND NEW STRATEGIES FOR ARCHIVAL MANAGEMENT
The article is devoted to analysis of the socio-cultural mission of archives and their roles in society’s development, in preserving documentary evidences, collective and individual memory, cultural and history heritage. It is investigated some aspects of interactions between the archives and the authorities, individuals and society; it is also characterized the role that memory and social studies, as well as information technologies play in the formation of the current image of archives. Among the current challenges for archives and archival management it has been pointed out the development of a new archival strategy and strategic thinking in a world that is constantly changing; need to provide authenticity of records and their keeping in the digital age; development of a new model for communication between archives and users that satisfy new social requirements. It is outlined, that technological and social changes bring a new look at the archives and the profession of archivist. Special attention is paid to the problem of access to information and creation the new opportunities for interaction between the archives and society through the Internet web-sites and social media.
THE ROLE OF SOCIAL COMMUNICATION IN MODERN ARCHIVE MANAGEMENT. AN ATTEMPT AT OUTLINING THE ARCHIVE–RESEARCHER–COLLECTIVE DYNAMIC IN THE CONTEXT OF THE INTERDEPENDENCE BETWEEN HISTORY AND MYTH
It is self-evident that the management of various types of archives is impacted considerably by social communication. This in turn is no doubt necessitated by the various social changes increasingly prevalent in developing societies. Social communication has also a huge impact on the public perception of the archives and the understanding of their role in society, broadly defined. Therefore, in anticipation of the ongoing social changes, archives should act to influence not only their own maintenance but also their perception within society. Basing the theory of archive management on the idea of social communication can bring numerous benefits to the institution, its employees and resources. In consequence, a twofold interaction takes place: the archive reaches out to meet social needs, while cultural and educational entities have the opportunity to use archival resources in their initiatives addressed to local communities. Today, such cooperation is quite popular, widely undertaken and certainly well known. Many authors have devoted numerous studies to it, however a slightly different aspect of potential communication between archive and community would benefit from more attention. Namely, the role that archives could play in the shaping of social historical consciousness, also regarding the interplay of history and myth. The above-mentioned interaction is often conducted through an intermediary – a researcher, most commonly an historian, but it may be worth exploring the potential of the archives themselves for this kind of interactions.
The relationships between archives, archival science and society are necessary, essential and genetic. In fact, the archives, considered as an expression of the society itself and its public institutions as well as its private entities, have always been linked by a strong bond with the society and its evolution. The intent of this brief reflection will be to focus on the interactions between the world of archives and the overall social reality that contribute to define the strategies of action as well as the cultures and the way of thinking and representing themselves of the institutions and professions operating within that world.
Archival arrangement is one of the main activities in archival processing. It is assumed it is based on common understandings and principles. However, there are archival practices that does not fully comply with these principles and understandings, and yet the archives still exist and users are still using the records. Consequently, it may be questioned if the archival principles are not cultural-conditioned and in what circumstances archival arrangement, as presented in international professional literature, can add value to archival processing. The work implied should balance the practical reality of resources and needs of the stakeholders. The modern technologies bring a transformation of archival arrangement, converting it from physical to virtual by reducing the relevance physical location of a record on shelves in favour of a logical property of records.
ARCHIVAL SCIENCE/ARCHIVOLOGY AND AUDIO-VISUAL ARCHIVES OR AUDIO- VISUAL ARCHIVES AND ARCHIVAL SCIENCE/ARCHIVOLOGY
The report describes the relationship between audio-visual archives and archival science or archivology. Author has described the prehistoric wishes of mankind in the rendering all visible things, even the moving images. But the retention of audio-visual materials was only facilitated by the advancement of technology at the end of the 19th and in the 20th centuries. Audio-visual archivology is an important part of archival science/ archivology. Differences between classical and audio-visual archives will be significantly reduced in the future due to archiving of born digital materials.
THE IMPORTANCE OF PERSONAL AND FAMILY DIGITAL ARCHIVES FOR A NEW PERCEPTION OF THE ARCHIVAL DISCIPLINE
This paper aims to highlight how social transformation, in particular those introduced by the so-called digital revolution, have led to significant changes in the ways in which personal and family archives are managed and how this has produced a need for knowledge, skills and abilities in the archival domain – a real “archival need”, perhaps unconscious, perhaps not well identified but extremely concrete and urgent – which begins to be felt by everyone. This can be an extraordinary opportunity on the one hand to start a mass training plan on the topics of Personal Digital Archiving, on the other hand to bring everyone - even the “common” people – closer to the archival discipline and encourage the recognition of the profession of archivist. In this way the archival science would have the possibility to get out of the circumscribed ranks that have often characterized it and become a discipline recognized by all and with a well estabilished “social” dimension.
THE INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL CHANGES ON THE STATUS POSITION OF THE ARCHIVES AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE ARCHIVAL ACTIVITY OF BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA (1990-2018)
Social changes in which the erosion of one party socialism and the introduction of a multiparty pluralist system of power affected the entire ex-Yugoslav territory in 1990. They have fought in the complex circumstances of national conflicts between the ruling political structures on the most important issues of the structure of the country’s socio- political and economic system. These disagreements, among other things, led to a four-year war in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992-1995). After that, in the post-war period that is still taking place, in the conditions of establishing a complicated constitutional organization of the country, national and political arguments have continued, with which the process of social transition has significantly slowed down. All these transitionary changes of the Bosnian-Herzegovinian society that still exist have had and have a direct reflection on the status of archives, that is, the management of archives, as well as the development of archival activity as a whole. Until the war, the unique archival service (Archives of B&H with its parent function and eight regional archives) was divided and organized according to the new administrative structure of the country (states, two entities, ten cantons and the Brčko District of B&H). Existing archives found themselves in new status positions, under the jurisdiction of new founders, the supervising function of the Archive of B&H was gone, new archives were formed and decentralization took on the characteristics of anarchy. This has slowed down to a considerable extent, and the development of the archival activity of Bosnia and Herzegovina continues to slow down. This paper points to the course and character of these changes and their reflection on archives and archival activities as a whole.
Viewed upon as repositories of “original” materials, the concept of authenticity permeates the very meaning of archives. The aim of the following report is to present a set of research methods and techniques that historians use when embarking on a quest for original archival documents and, inevitably, a number of dilemmas connected with the (in)accessibility of sources. How important (and informing) is the archive’s role in the historians’ production of knowledge? Does professionalism of archivists influence profoundly the outcome of the researcher’s agenda and, at the same time, help mould further awareness of relevant archival material dispersed across collections and beyond national borders? Archivists play a significant part not only in creating information to produce social and historical knowledge but also in reconstituting social memories that never should never fade.
INFLUENCE OF MODERN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES ON THE VIEWS ON THE BASIC OBJECT OF ARCHIVAL SCIENCE
The article is devoted to the problem of determining the main object of archival science. The traditional object of archival science is an archival document. However, under the influence of modern information technologies, the types of documents, their content have significantly changed. In this regard, some archivists believe that the main object of archival research is not a document, but information. When examining the identified problem, the author concludes that the archival document remains the main object of archival science. This is due to its ability to serve as an evidence, confirmation, as well as the presence of attributes, allowing to identify the author, the time and place of recording information on the media.
In this paper the author present views on the possibilities of coexistence between the rapid development of the information society and the archival theory and practice, or archival science, which today is defined as independent, academic, interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary science. The paper deals with the definitions of archivistics and draw attention to extensive literature, and in some segments it also touches on definitions available on web portals, social media, etc. Today, archivists are facing questions that will need to be answered; how should we respond in this day-to-day storm that bumps us from digitalization, GDPR, blockchain, artificial intelligence and maybe more. At the end it mentions the fact that archivism will only develop if it has a quality academically qualified staff, which should provide such a study program in the course of full-time, independent study of archivists, so that graduates will be able to handle all archival professional, technical and scientific research areas. Archival founding countries must also provide funding for the education of archivists at all three levels. Only with a Bachelor of Archivists, Masters of Archival and Documentation and Doctor of Archival Sciences degree archival science will be developed in the same way as other sciences.
Management, Appraisal and Preservation of Electronic Records: the Belarusian Experience
The article is devoted to the new challenges that archives faced during the last twenty years: how to manage E-records, what are the principles and criteria of their appraisal, how to transfer the most valuable E-records to archives and to insure their long-term preservation. The author discovers the solutions of the mentioned problems implemented in the national legislation, reveals the techniques and practices used. In spite of the huge number of legislative acts the problems still remain. The author notes that archivists in their work with Erecords strongly depend upon the hardware and software used for creating and operating E-records, but that does not mean they should stay outside the process. They should feel free to state their demands and to warn about the danger of loss of documents and information if ignored. The quality solutions of the problems are possible only on the basis of close cooperation of records managers, archivists and specialists in the sphere of information technologies.
Evaluation of Archival Material and Re-Use of Information in the Public Sector
With the implementation of Directive 2003/98/EC and Directive 2013/37/EU on the one hand and with the implementation of the systematic management of electronic documents on the other hand, several archival professional issues are raised regarding the evaluation and use of modern archival material in physical and digital form. Existing archival practice in this area is based mainly on the management of records in physical form. For the modern archivists broader requests for re-use of public sector documents represent great archival-professional challenges. Some basic aspects of this problem are presented in this paper.
Management, Appraisal and Preservation of Government Records: Some Aspects of the Canadian
Over the last decades, archivists believed the management of government records, without being perfect, was going smoothly and seamlessly: records from Canadian government institutions were acquired, processed and made accessible to Canadians in an organised, structured, and logical way. However, in his 2014 report, the Auditor General of Canada pointed out not only weaknesses but also failures in LAC activities related directly to its mandate: developing Records Disposition Authorities (RDA), processing archival material from departments and agencies, and making this heritage material available to Canadians or people interested in Canada. LAC was somehow shocked by this earthquake and had to cope with these problems and find solutions, within three years. My presentation has three parts: 1- the LAC Act, macro-appraisal and RDA; 2- the Auditor General’s report; 3- the creation of the LAC Task Force to deal with these archival issues. My conclusion will explore some elements about the management of digital archives for Canadian government institutions.
Specifics of Appraisal of Archival Material in Bosnia and Herzegovina During the Transitional Period
The transition processes in Bosnia and Herzegovina caused radical changes in all spheres of society, and they are directly reflected on archival activities and appraisal of archives. The paper wants to point out some special appraisal of archive material in a period of transition in terms of specific social processes, such as war developments, changes in the economy in terms of privatization, starting bankruptcy proceedings and other transition and reform processes in the company. These processes in the society constantly demanded new approaches, and the principles and criteria of appraisal of archive material in a period of transition, in order to preserve the optimum necessary information for future generations. This paper aims to show the importance of archives from the period of transition, and to draw attention to the specifics of the appraisal of archives specified period. In doing so, the paper put forward the specifics of the appraisal in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with some positive examples and experiences, gained by Archives of Tuzla Canton. Of course, the paper presents only some specifics of appraisal of archives, however the experience in this area are far more comprehensive and richer.
Archival Response to the Challenge of Long Term Preservation: Archives of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Era of Digitization
One of the simplest and most straightforward definitions of the Archives is that it is a place where archival material is preserved. In addition to all the other tasks that Archives should perform, preservation and protection of archival materials should always be the major commitment. In a world in which we exist, the constant change is the only permanent and inevitable phenomenon. The old Greeks used to say panta rei. There is expression in Bosnia - time creates, time destroys. Men’s fight against transience and oblivion has begun from the first moment when he understood the inevitability of death. This struggle has never stopped and is reflected in art, philosophy, science and everyday life. Archive is just one of the places where it is most evident. Although the information in digital form is theoretically impervious to the passage of time, the media on which they are kept are far away from immortality. It is not even necessary to wait for them to perish physically - they quickly become unusable due to the appearance of newer, better, but incompatible formats. Just try to access a file saved some fifteen years ago, stored on 5 or 8 inch floppy. Archives of Bosnia and Herzegovina, possessing over 400 valuable funds, has not managed to keep pace with similar institutions across Europe in the digitizing process. There is a constant problem of the lack of adequate IT equipment and professional employees. The fire that last year stormed one of the most important depots put in the foreground the strategy of keeping electronic copies in multiple locations.
Management of Public Archives in Burkina Faso: Security and Perennial of Electronic Data
The explosion of the digital in Burkina, like in the major part of the countries of the world, has induced a study on the regulation related to electronic archives and on the impact of the present management of the electronic documents, in about fifteen Burkinabe public institutions, on the security and perennial of the electronic archives. From reports and analyses we must recognize that despite the existence of a national legal framing, the present management of the electronic archives in the majority of the organizations producers of public data in Burkina does not find its foundations in the main texts governing electronic archiving. In the practice it is more question of empirical storing without formalized procedures, than an archiving in the full sense of the term. However, it is right to notice that a certain number of structures integrate the question of the management of the electronic documents as priority in the frame of the good governance.
Legislative Frame of the Protection and Use of E-records in the Republic of Croatia
Due to the fact, that the number of E-records in care of creators and owners of public archives in Croatia is constantly growing while their protection is very poorly covered in the Law on archival records and Archives, the authors discuss the question according to which laws and in which way the protection of E-records is ensured. They are discussing also the questions, which guidelines should be applied in the draft of the future law and regulation referring to E-records. Are the existing laws on E-records sufficient for their protection in this transitional period?
Information Society, E-Records and the New Archival Science
The study shows how information society is reflected in e-records (volatility, dynamism, mixed private and public spheres), how it transformed the records themselves (no physical aspect, complicated structure, separated elements), and how it conquered the human memory. The basic dilemma of long term preservation is that erecords are dependent upon hardware and software which change rapidly, therefore we are unable to preserve them unchanged. The study talks shortly about integrity and authenticity of e-records which are basic requirements, and then outlines the major preservation strategies (migration, emulation, technology preservation, post-custodial archives, cloud computing) used by archives. In the digital world archival science adopted a lot from information science which caused that standards (ISADg, EAD, OAIS) are the new milestones of archival science. The greatest „yield” of this cooperation is that the data management and procedures are automatable. However, archivists must keep their classical synthetic work in digital world, too: to know and describe the record creator agency, its economic, political and societal environment, to build the system of fonds, etc.
Managing a Photograph Collection: ARKzin photo archive Case Study
Paper deals with whole process of organization of photo documentation produced by magazine ARKzin. ARKzin was published from 1991 to 1998 and first existed within the Antiwar Campaign Croatia, a network of peace, antiwar, and human rights groups, and later became independent subject. Collection of photographs consists of around 1500 items, taken from different authors, with some of them later becoming well-known photographers, and covers many subjects: protests, war atrocities, portraits of people interviewed for ARKzin, various social events, and graphics. The collection itself is valuable overview of social and political situation in Croatia in the nineties. The collection was transferred from ARKzin as creator to Documenta in 2011, with the aim of identification of items, organization and digitization, and publishing on virtual archive on the Internet. The paper is presenting the challenges of collection management in both physical and virtual environment, with emphasis on physical organization of the collection.
Web 2.0 in the Archival Domain: Why and How in the Knowledge Economy
In the knowledge economy Web 2.0 applications used by archives are on the increase. This growing engagement has been having an influence on the way archival services and products are made available. In this article we aim to describe how Web 2.0 can work as a virtual extension for archives, by identifying impacts and benefits resulting from that innovation. The innovation is considered as inevitably linked to change and presents a number of challenges. The challenges can typically be brought together in three main areas: the technological change, the cultural change and the pedagogic change. These are all important, interdependent and must be addressed in both a strategic and an operational way if archives are to generate maximum benefit from their investment in this new communicating delivery mechanism. We restrict the attention to archival evidence-based knowledge, and examine issues in content, metadata quality, and knowledge dissemination policy that are important from the perspective of archival methodology.
The Era of Electronic Documents and the Challenges Facing Their Management
The rapid evolution of computer science and information technology during the past 30 years has led to a revolution in the way of creating electronic documents and information exchanges. Once monolithic, now document is made dynamic in terms of diversification opportunities of commercial exchanges. The central role played by the documents, for the implementation of business processes across different organizations, already enjoys a growing awareness and recognition larger. Standard ISO 15489, Records Management, puts documents at the heart of business processes and promotes their pursuit of an electronic management system that develops them on these premises. The digitization of documents and their creation since inception in electronic form, facilitates the work of the public regarding research in various fields. Therefore, electronic tools of research are not a goal in itself: they are here to allow and assist the researcher and the applicant to identify more quickly the original documents, which are useful for research or his research.
Electronic Records Management in Romania: More Electronic-, Less Records-Management
The management of electronic records and documents seems to be very developed in Romania. Mostly under UE financing, a lot of institutions implemented modern systems and digitized legacy paper records. Pertinent pieces of legislation were adopted (time-stamp, electronic signature and even an electronic archiving act) and this might create an image of proper regulated environment. But a closer look to the facts shows that proper electronic records management lacks almost completely. The paper will look into details about the way modern archives are prepared for the future.
Among Technological Reality, Legislation and Practice: Montenegrin Archivists Facing the Challenge of Long-Term Preservation of E-Records
This paper deals with the technological reality in Montenegro, which is characterized by the transition of an increasing number of entities onto electronic business and the growing production of electronic records. By analyzing the adopted regulations and development strategies, for now exclusively under the jurisdiction of the Ministry for Information Society and Telecommunications, we have tried to determine what role the State Archives and Montenegrin archivists play in the accomplishment of their professional mission - long-term preservation of electronic archives.
Archives Management and Permanent Storage of Documents
Modern digital archives are modern archives which in big computer devices (servers), preserve archived original document overlooking the moment is produced. Archives in Kosovo assessment of archival documents make in two directions. First; selection of classical documents (on paper) with the value to be transformed into digital documents, and second; selection of contemporary documents produced by institutions of computer and internet era. Management of these digital documents requires procedures and professional standards for its storage and processing by the archive, in order to be ready to serve researchers and interested parties. Access to digital documents should be fast, simple procedures, providing documentation from the penetration of ‘hackers’ and people badly intention. To fulfil its mission digital document should ensure and complement the appearance of the original document. Since the user does not have the option of intervention and change in the document. Should work in protect emblem, which protects the entire area of the document in the form of molten seal, which also shows the ownership of certain archive. Safety documentation and document base by external users will be able to organize, deposit and stored at three levels: Server (1) be stored (saved) archival documents for use by the applicant; Server (2) stored data of the first and simultaneously updates added by continuous processing of new documents; and Server (3) is not accessible from outside through digital network, but stored all digital archive documentation and from here there should be no often exit. In Server 3 only entered document and stored as recent bank. From there, the document will be drawn only if it is missing or damaged document on server 1 and 2.Thus, through this categorization could be provided for long time electronic documents (digital), until to new modern inventions of modern digitalization technology that would ensure the preservation of documents for the ‘real’ long-term or permanent time.
The ultimate objective of every digitization project of archival holdings is to create digital master document - copy that would facilitate searching through archival holdings and eliminate potential damage risks during consulting original documents in archives’ reading rooms as well as during handling and using originals while preparing publications and exhibitions of archival documents kept in archival institutions. Therefore the creation of a digital master document implies previous defining of adequate quality parameters and later verifying, by means of careful and rigorous control, whether defined quality has been achieved. The paper deals with digital document quality control as an important element in the chain of creating, managing and long term preservation of e-documents created by digitization, stating that the only worth keeping digital master documents are those that passed through thorough quality control.
Scientific and Methodical Solutions of Long-Term Storage of Electronic Records in the Russian Federation
The author has examined normative and methodical foundations of work with electronic records in records management of the Russian Federation and presented the solutions of their long-term storage based on experiences of the Russian archivists and records managers with electronic records.
Digital archives preservation: a “culture broth” for a new archival paradigm
The paper wants to illustrate that one of main scopes in which the archival community has to answer to challenges given to the long-term digital preservation is the need of a critical revision of the traditional archival paradigm. The thesis has proved by a case study: that’s represented by the public system of long-term digital preservation managed by “Polo archivistico regionale dell’Emilia-Romagna” (ParER). This case study is analysed with reference to the functions in which the preservation activity has articulated and the relationships that the custodian has with the creators that use its services. It emerges so the need for a revision of the traditional archival paradigm, with regard to some aspects: the life cycle model, the custodian role, the record concept as an absolute stability, the concept of archival description and mediation, the tools for the access to digital archives by users.